After the jump are some of the photos taken on our 4 day trip to europe’s largest games event….enjoy!

One of the cars that was there to promote Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

The Playstation Move stand.

Square Enix stand.

Playstation Move in action.

Infamous 2 was playable from these hospital beds.

Silence before the storm.

Somehow the lines at the Castlevania stand never looked like they were moving.

The Konami stand always looks like a hospital.

These guys followed us around everywhere we went.

Ubisoft was showing Driver & R.U.S.E.

My bathroom looks excactly the same!

What characters are they supposed to be?

The last day we checked out of our hotel early in the morning. We dropped our luggage in one of the underground lockers at the central station and made our way to the show floor…

We went inside and walked straight to the Sony 18+ area where they were showing Infamous 2, Killzone 3, Dead Nation, Socom, The Fight, Time Crisis 4, Heavy Rain with move support and Motorstorm Apocolypse. I went straight for The Fight because i was curious to try out the new motion controller. But when we couldnt get the game to work we quickly decided to try something else. I noticed Killzone 3 was playable in 3d in the corner bathtub so i made my way there and waited untill the person before me was finished playing. Meanwhile my companion checked out Motorstorm. When it was my turn to play Killzone 3 in 3d from a bathtub my companion sat down on the toilet next to me and played the normal version. I’m not a huge Killzone fan but i do like the atmosphere they have put in the games. The first few minutes i was mostly trying to focus my eyes on specific details but when i found out this was almost impossible i just tried to make my way through the level they provided. It was the same level we already saw on the E3 demo but that didnt matter much to me.

The game played and felt like killzone 2 with the controls being a bit better then before. The only problem i had was that it was hard to see details in the distance wich made aiming a bit harder as well. Especially when everything is in a shade of gray or black. The only things that stood out in the distance where the red eyes from the hellghast. This became even harder to see when the screen got filled by explosions and rpg’s. In my opinion its still to early for me to see the benefits of playing games in 3D. I found the game to be a lot easier on a normal television.

After we both finished playing in the bathroom we wanted to check out Time Crisis 4. I’m a big Time Crisis fan so i couldnt wait to see what the new controller would do to this game. Unfortunatly it was a big dissapointment. You didnt have to aim at all but just point the Move on the screen and move the target reticule over the enemy’s while holding the trigger. The whole take cover, reload and aim gameplay was gone and this is what made Time Crisis so much fun to begin with. Graphically the game didn’t look to bad only maybe a bit to colourful. We both shared this opinion when we put down the controls to see what else was new.

After having another look at Infamous 2 wich looks pretty sweet we tried our luck on Dead Nation. This is a PSN downloadable game only that focusses on killing hordes of zombies as creative as possible. Much like Dead Rising only seen from the top down and without Gaffa-tape. The first part you only have a simple hand gun that shoots single shots and you can use melee attacks to bash zombies that get to close. But when you progress there are weapon shops that provide you with more efficient killing devices. You can use sound, light and movement to distract zombies from attacking you. The first items that let you experiment with this are flares and grenades. When you throw a flare all zombies in the area start running towards it and when they are close enough just lob a grenade in the center to blow the to pieces. Littereraly blown to pieces because the way the zombies die is really spectacular. Other things you could use in this demo to distract the undead horde were car alarms & vending machines resulting in the same blood and gore fest that is Dead Nation.

After having another go with The Fight and seeing all that Sony had on offer we made our way outside. There we walked passed Enslaved. Since there wheren’t alot of people playing this we went in to have a look. The graphics looked pretty and the action looked intense but when we got our hands on one of the controllers we found it to be none of this. Every jump was pre-programmed meaning you only had to press x on the edge and Monkey would jump across no matter the distance. You couldnt even fall down if you just kepped pressing forward and x al the time. It did make you feel like you where playin a movie but since we both like a challenge we dropped the controlls after 5 minutes and made our way to the exit of the booth.

We had a final look around on the show floor, played a few more games we missed earlier and finished the Gamescom with another visit to the EA stand to try and get that Need for Speed T-shirt one more time. Unfortunatly we both failed…

Gamescom 2010 was a nice chance for us to see some of the upcoming titles and we had a great time exploring it all…See you next year Cologne!!!

(photo special will follow)

We already knew from last years experience that saturday was going to be very crowded. So we once again made our way to the show floor as early as possible…

When we arrived we went straight for the Bethesda stand where they were showing Brink’s multiplayer. We got some instructions on how to play, unforunatly everything was in german so we didnt understand it all. But then they let us loose in an 4 vs 4 match were we where part of a team that had to stop the other team from reaching specific checkpoints with some sort of maintenance bot. They had to open doors and meanwhile keep the bot in one piece while we where trying to stop them from progressing and damage the maintenance bot. When the bot was damaged enough they had to repair it before it could move again.

I dont know if it was because they where running the game on pc’s with xbox controllers or just because the game isnt fully finished yet, but we wheren’t really impressed with the way everything looked and played. The controls felt a bit clunky and the textures looked a bit unfinished. The thing i was most curious about was the S.M.A.R.T. system that lets you free run up and over any obstacle that is in your way simply by holding the left trigger. Unfortunatly when i tried to get on a rooftop or container it somehow didn’t work for me.

My traveling companion told me afterwards he had the same problems. After about 10 minutes of shooting everything that moves we managed to hold the line long enough and we won the match. I think the opposing team was stuck on the second checkpoint and they still had about six to go, i wonder if they knew what they where doing. All in all we wheren’t very impressed with what we saw. And in all honesty it was slightly dissapointing. At least we got a nice t-shirt when we passed through the exit of the booth.

Because this day was as crowded as we expected we then made our way to the entertainment area outside. There where some remote controlled cars on a closed track you could drive and a thing that launches you 30 feet in the air attached to some bungee chords. And if you really needed a break from all the excitement they even had a small beachbar with sand on the floor.

After relaxing a bit in the shadow we had another look around on the show floor. But when it became almost impossible to walk freely without being run over by drunk german kids, we wisely took the decision to go for the exit and continue our exploring on the following morning.

There was a small 3day festival being held right in front of our hotel. We made our way to one of the bars that was near the stage. And we spended the rest of the day on their terras enjoying the sights and sounds of Cologne…

To be continued…

(more photos will follow)

Shank will be available on PSN & Xbox Live later today…i personally can’t wait!!!

Official site: www.shankgame.com

After a good night sleep in our hotel we woke up nice and early. We arrived at the show before the doors opened. There we decided to take the side entrance because the main entrance was to crowded.

This turned out to be a good choice because we could walk straight inside. We made it to the Bethesda/idSoftware booth and chose to wait in line for Rage. After waiting for about a half hour the doors opened and we went inside the small theater they had setup there. They showed a half hour walkthough of some of the playable areas in the game. One of the concept art designers was playing while one of the lead developers was explaining what happened. The first part showed of some vehicle combat. They showed the quadbike you will get when you first start exploring the world. But when there was a 4×4 armored jeep parked just outside he wisely made his choice to go for that one instead. It had a huge battering ram on the front and it was well equipped with weapons and all kinds of nastyness. After ramming through some weak opponents he made it to a city where he parked his vehicle outside. He took a look at the damage and the entire battering ram was gone. They then explained you could get your vehicle repaired inside the city walls.

Once inside the city they showed some npc’s you could talk to and they also played the first minigame that was available in this city. They explained that there will be more minigames available as you progress in the game. The game that was being played was a gameboard in the shape of an X with a sherrif projected in the middle and 4 enemys on the edges. You had a certain amount of moves and you are supposed to keep the sherrif alive before the enemys made it to the center. But unfortunatly he ran out of moves and the sherrif died this time.

The next part of the walkthough showed of some of the areas where you have to rely on your feet and your guns. There was a new weapon that is a crossbow which can shoot different kinds of bolts. In this case they went to an area wich was very wet and they used electro bolts to electrocute some enemy’s that where standing in shallow water. They also showed a walking gun turret that looks like a spider and there was a remote control car with a bomb strapped on it u can use to blow up enemy’s from a safe point without them noticing you. You will find all sorts of materials during your playthrough wich you can then use to build different kinds of gadgets. The enemy’s all attacked in different paterns and every type of enemy has its own very distinct personality. The demo ended with a huge mutant approaching and shaking the ground in an area called Deadcity where no one has ever seen the exit. All in all the graphics looked pretty solid and the gameplay looked like it could be interesting, only the sound was a lacking sub. The game is said to be released in september 2011 so there is still enough time to get excited.

After a short smoke break we made our way to the Nintendo booth to see Donkey Kong Country Returns & Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Both games cant go wrong in my opinion because the graphics look sweet and the gameplay is Nintendo at its best. Unfortunatly i dont own a Wii but if i did then these to games would definetly be on my wishlist. Maybe this is a good time to actually buy a Wii. Metroid other M was also playable but since we both arent really big metroid fans we passed on this one. To bad Nintendo already announced the 3DS wouldn’t be at the Gamescom because we where really looking forward to see it.

In the afternoon we had another look around in all of the halls and we enjoyed some nice german beer & bratwurst…

to be continued…

(photos will follow later)

The biggest games event in the world with over 250.000 visitors has just ended. We where there to catch the atmosphere and play the games that are on our wishlists…

After a five hour train journey from Groningen to Cologne we arrived on the show floor on Thursday afternoon. Because we where going to stay untill sunday, we decided we could take it easy on the first day. We went inside to have a look around and see where we wanted to go the other three days. Of course we already knew what games were going to be there. But we didnt know how or in what form they were planning to show some of them.

Thursday was a good day to have a walkthrough because it wasnt to crowded and we could easely have a look around in all of the 4 halls. Some of the games and hardware i personally was looking forward to see were: Rage, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Brink, Killzone3 in 3d, Streetfighter X Tekken, Metal Gear solid Rising, Playstation Move & Microsoft Kineckt. Unfortunately Nintendo already announced the 3DS wasnt going to be there. And also SEGA & Capcom where missing on the show floor. To bad because i was really looking forward to get my hands on Dead Rising 2 and maybe some Vanquish. But apart from those everything else was well represented and a lot was actually playable.

The only game we wanted to play on this day was Need for Speed: Hot pursuit and i must say it totally blew me away. The graphics looked amazing and the gameplay felt like Burnout on speed. My favourite moment was when the police helicopter fly’s over for the first time and you get totally blinded by the searchlight that is making its way across the tarmac. If you succeeded in finishing below 2 minutes 49 seconds you would get a t-shirt but i crashed hard when trying to take a shortcut i spotted a bit to late. Better luck next time…

We also had the chance to speak to one of the developers from Criterion we met two years ago when he was there to promote Burnout Paradise. He was really excited about his new product and actually took the time to answer some of our questions. The thing that got me most excited was that there are going to be 60 different cars in game. Infact there are 40  police cars and 40 normal cars to choose but they are all made from those 60 different models. I then  asked him about what part DICE is doing for the game because i thought they where helping with the multiplayer. But he told me they actually work on the enviroment details. He said they where so precise that at some points they had to draw the line because they where taking it to far. He said there’s a big difference between details if  your going 250 mph or just slowly running and gunning in a combat shooter. But still the amount of details is insane…

All in all we got a good feel of the show floor and we where very excited about what we where going to see the next few days…

to be continued…

(photos will be added later)

I don’t really know what to think about the movie, but the videogame is looking pretty sweet indeed!

Release date: August 10th, 2010
Official site: www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com

Shoot faster, cut deeper & kill harder in the co-op mode for Shank!

Release date: August 24th, 2010
Official site: www.shankgame.com

This is definitly the funniest game i’ve played this year. If you want to find out why go and play the demo now!

Release date: Available now!
Official site: www.deathspank.com

2. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

3. Rage

4. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

5. Donkey Kong Country Returns

6. Portal 2

7. Child of Eden

8. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

9. Kirby’s Epic Yarn

10. Epic Mickey

11. Castlevania: Lord of Shadows

12. Kid Icarus: Uprising

13. Homefront

14. Call of Duty: Black Ops

15. Metal Gear Solid: Rising

16. Shank!

17. Medal of Honor

18. Killzone 3

19. Kevin Butler @ the Sony Press Conference

20. Metroid other M